Before Midnight

An honest, gripping and intimate peak into a relationship
Let's first get two things out of the way. If you've seen BEFORE SUNRISE and/or BEFORE SUNSET and disliked them...there is no reason to give BEFORE MIDNIGHT a try. And if you haven't seen those movies at all, I HIGHLY recommend you do prior to checking out Richard Linklater's latest near classic.

I should also warn that even the most cursory mention of plot points in either the 2ndor the 3rdmovie can be construed as spoilers...but it's tough to talk about the 3rdfilm without giving away some surprise. I'll balance as best I can.

In BEFORE SUNRISE, young American Jesse (Ethan Hawke), age about 23 meets young Frenchwoman Celine (Julie Delpy), age about 23. They are on a train bound for Vienna. Jesse is flying back to the US from Vienna the morning after the train arrives. Celine is on her way back to Paris after visiting family in Budapest. They strike up a conversation and clearly hit it off right away. Jesse asks Celine to get off the train with him and...

Another must-see chapter in the endearing "Before" franchise
When we last saw Jessie and Celine now already nine years ago, Jessie looked as if he was about to miss his flight back to the US and instead choosing to stay with Celine in Paris. And now we get the third installment of this fanastic mini-franchise.

As "Before Midnight" (2013 release; 109 min.) opens, we see Jessie (played by Ethan Hawke) dropping off his 13 yr. old son Hank at the Kalamata airport in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. From their conversation we learn that Hank spent the summer with Jessie and Celine on vacation in Greece. As Jessie gets to his car to drive off, we see Celine (played by Julie Delpy) and... their 7 yr. old twin daughters Ella and Nina! So yes indeed, Celine and Jessie became a couple, living in Paris, and now the parents of 2 girls. The remainder of the movie plays out that rest of the afternoon and evening, and to tell you much more of the 'plot' would surely ruin your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all...

Talk to me ...
I'm new to the whole `Before...' trilogy. I understand that I'm probably the one in a million who hadn't seen any of the parts, but it is a truth I can't hide from. Back in 2004, when the internet was abuzz of talk over `Before Sunset' and critics were raving Julie Delpy's performance and the Oscars were nominating its screenplay I was under a rock. Well, to be completely honest, I wasn't under a rock as much as I was too lazy to want to watch `Before Sunrise' and there was no way I was going to watch a sequel without watching the first film. So this year I finally buckled. With all the critical praise for `Before Midnight' I knew that I was going to eventually HAVE to see this movie, and so I Netflix'd `Before Sunrise' and `Before Sunset' and had myself a `Before...' marathon. Yes, I got up early this morning and watched the first two films and then got in my car and sat in a theater and indulged in the conclusion to this romantic trifecta (or is it?).

In all...

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